What is the craziest thing you have had happen to you in grad school, or that you have heard about?

Once, after I had given a talk on medieval asceticism, I later got asked by a very attractive female grad student whether I was "into" the whole sadomasochistic aspect. I think I just mumbled something incoherent and quickly excused myself...

Well, in all fairness, that might have been the best course anyway. (To quote the late, great Frank Zappa: "Yeah right, hurt me, hurt me, I'm sure! No way!")

What is the craziest thing you have had happen to you in grad school, or that you have heard about?

I frequently got hit on by other grad students (which for me, was extraordinarily weird; it's almost never happened in any other context). But I was in a relationship at the time, a horrible, humiliating, soul-destroying relationship granted, and, well, I'm stupid.

This thread is making me nostalgic. I loved grad. school. I have an MFA and a doctorate and just adored my time in school--the people were gorgeous, everyone was hooking up, we were all poor and had potlucks and made awesome art and read everything. I loved it so much I made a career of being in school and am now a professor. Sadly, less hooking up (at least at the moment), but I still love school.

In psychology there are usually way more girls than guys. I think there were like 3 guys in my cohort and 15 girls or something like that. Anyway, the guys found it pretty easy to hook up. Our first year I ended up nabbing one of the 3 dudes and now we're married, so I guess that made it even easier for the other 2 guys.

_________________I like my bagels like I like my men - big and covered with earth balance & nooch. - Bunniee

This is so true! There are hardly any men at my school. I've been living with my partner for the past (almost) 3.5 years, he's in PhD land too, so thankfully the men shortage is not that concerning to me personally.

The craziest story I heard was from one of my professors. During his grad years he was working in a lab with another one of his cohort members. She was experimenting with LSD and its effects. Apparently she was had a glass vial with 500 doses that she was about to administer to her subjects, and for whatever reason, she bit down and broke the vial in her mouth, simultaneously ingesting 500 doses of LSD. She was rushed to the hospital and was held there for a while. My professor said he didn't follow up to see what happened to her, but that he did see her back in the lab several weeks later. Crazy, no?

Meggs, that is so neat! Did you enjoy your time at TCS. I am just figuring things out around the school, any advice? What professors the Clinical Psy D do you know? What are you up to now?

The craziest story I heard was from one of my professors. During his grad years he was working in a lab with another one of his cohort members. She was experimenting with LSD and its effects. Apparently she was had a glass vial with 500 doses that she was about to administer to her subjects, and for whatever reason, she bit down and broke the vial in her mouth, simultaneously ingesting 500 doses of LSD.

I've been a grad student in 4 countries (US, India, Denmark, NL). It's pretty sweet, especially now that I'm paid for it - and paid to fly all over the place to do super awesome research/conference-y things.

I had to get a lab coat today! maybe someone will call me Doctor, too!

I do kind of like the idea of having an MS and making people call me Master

When my husband asked what my title would be upon graduation, I told him that if you get a doctorate, you get called Dr., so it only seemed logical that he call me Master. He did not agree.

I feel a little odd being a grad student just because I live a long commute off campus and have a family. In a lot of ways i wish I lived closer because the Psych department seems to stick together and do a lot of events and outings, but living 45 minutes away with a four year old pretty much makes that impossible. Other than that, I love being in school and just started some exciting research, all of my professors seem great, and I love the program I'm in. I know I'll be sad when it's over, but I'll be DONE after my Master's, at least until I work for a few years and give my poor husband a break, and hopefully let him at least get in an undergrad degree.

What is the craziest thing you have had happen to you in grad school, or that you have heard about?

When I was writing up my thesis, the chemical cold storage room across the hall exploded. Loudest thing I've ever heard. I had to crawl out of my laboratory to get past the debris. Before the campus got evacuated we watched as smoke began to come out of the roof. Not good. Then more smoke. Then the fire department was debating whether it was even safe to go in the building. Then we had to leave. There was a couple of days where I thought I had lost everything (3.5yrs of work). It was about a month before things got back to even close to normal. Half of the top floor, where I worked, was closed because of damage but people in other areas could continue mostly as normal. My research group had to squeeze in other parts of the building.

So it's stressful, at times, but it's a specialization in something you're passionate about, so you enjoy the coursework and have some amazing professors who are doing great work in the field. Despite regretting paying so freaking much for my other master's, I absolutely loved those aspects of my degree. I soaked the knowledge up like a sponge.

I'm slightly nervous about the differences between the UK and US education systems, but I'll figure it out. UK seems more intense in some ways, and more... liberal (?) in others. I've not quite put my finger on it yet.

I'm slightly nervous about the differences between the UK and US education systems, but I'll figure it out. UK seems more intense in some ways, and more... liberal (?) in others. I've not quite put my finger on it yet.

For one, in my experience, there's a greater expectation that you'll be self-motivating and self-directing and there's less hand-holding in general, which can be a little nerve wracking if you're used to a more structured environment, but it also means there are fewer pointless hoops to jump through. Even for undergraduate degrees: we never graded for attendance, just for results on term papers and final exams, so it was technically possible to get top marks without having attended a single lecture or seminar. If you thought you could learn more studying in the library than you could sitting in a lecture hall, you were pretty much welcome to try.

It was also weird grading (and being graded) for a class entirely on the results of mid-term and final assignments. On the other hand, the idea of having second and external markers is awesome. Mitigates the problem in US universities of having your GPA tank because you get the one obstreperous crank who refuses to grade anyone above a B.

_________________"All PPK gamers should put on their badge of shame right now. You will never leave the no-sex thread." - Vantine"I'm so glad my prison of principles has wifi." - Abelskiver

In my psychology based class, we had a guest speaker who decided to give a little career advice but that wasn't part of her talk. She said that you either need your PhD or go for an MSW. Now I don't want to talk I'll of my classmates but this is in a community college and only a couple of students have an interest in psychology. There are also 2 of us who have a Bachelors. I'm looking at the guy who wants to know how the movie 'Baby Mama' fits in our talk and a few others and I think they'll be lucky if they get an AA/AS. And I don't think that's a bad thing but most college students, especially at a CC just want to get in, get out and look more towards the vocational tracks.

And as for me, I will be putting in my applications starting December/January for second degree BSN and I'm nervous about the whole quitting my job to go to school thing. I need to verify with one school that they'll take an older pre-req. It'll be a long road to my MSN although by the time I qualify to get in, the programs will most likely be DNP programs. So then I will have demand people call me dr nurse.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

Thank you for the explanation, h-dog. That seems about right. Now it's just actually going through it and seeing if I can adjust. Rather, how quickly I can adjust. My cohort is made up mainly of my age or older people who are doing the programme part-time because they work. It will be interesting. I'm hella focused but rusty with things like critiquing journal articles. Induction week helped me realize that I have a lot of work ahead of me! The head of the programme (who is also a main lecturer) is really kind and I believe he will make himself available if I initially need any extra help because I am one of those highly-structured individuals you mentioned.

I am grateful that they showed us the grading scale ahead of time. I'd have flipped if I'd earned a C and had no idea that it was acceptable.

I'm really excited for you, linanil! I have no idea how nerve-wracking it is to quit your job and all of that (because I've never obtained a proper job as a result of my degrees, sadly) but I'm so excited you're following your dream to get this degree! And I'll totally call you Dr. Nurse Linanil, even before you finish the programme.